21 Dustin (Khel­silem) Rivers

COUN­CIL­LOR AND SPOKESPER­SON, SQUAMISH NA­TION NEW Dustin Rivers— also known by his Squamish name, Khel­silem—was one of sev­eral fresh faces elected to lead the Squamish Na­tion last De­cem­ber. The Squamish are one of the Lower Main­land’s most inuen­tial In­dige­nous com­mu­ni­ties, and Rivers—who serves as their spokesper­son—has quickly be­come one of the most no­table voices on is­sues aect­ing First Na­tions, in­clud­ing the con­tro­ver­sial Trans Moun­tain pipe­line project. In ad­di­tion to his po­lit­i­cal work, Rivers helped SFU set up its Squamish Lan­guage Prociency Certicate Pro­gram and ad­vo­cates pro­tect­ing and pre­serv­ing In­dige­nous id­ioms.